By Shaenon K. Garrity

Menu

Oh my gosh, are we at the end of the Victorian serial? I’m gonna cry. I can’t believe we’ve made it all the way here.

Also, remember how at the very beginning of this thing they were going to go to the moon? Because they’ve finally gotten around to that. Awesome.

Cockney rhyming slang originated in the mid-19th century, making Mell’s use of “butcher’s” (butchers=>butcher’s hook=>look) period-appropriate. Same goes for “spiffing.” EXCELLENT.

Also excellent: Mell just literally biting the shark guy’s head off. This page was hard to draw but totally worth it. Man, I can’t believe there’s no more Victorian serial left after this.

Poor Madblood. He just can’t win on any plane of reality. He looks pretty cute all rumpled in bed, though.

I drew him upside-down in the first panel because it was the only way to fit the caption box and word balloons, but it turned out pretty nicely.

The great part of writing Victorian science fiction, of course, is that you can make up pretty much any science you like. Unless you’re Jules Verne and you actually go to the library and read research papers to keep up with the science and engineering of the day, but forget that nerd, let’s do some sweet moonscapes!

Yes, Helen and Pim-as-Mell are holding hands. This relationship is not wrong and disturbing at all.

[REDACTED] being a webcomic that had recently ended (only to start up again later, but that’s another story) with the central love triangle suddenly resolving itself into a harem, title removed here for fear of spoilers. Old-school webcomic fans probably know the one.

Obviously I wouldn’t do this kind of thing in the main Narbonic storyline, but it struck me as funny for the side story. Victorians were always getting up to kinky stuff.